Power supply system design and build for Antarctica telescope

Abstract

Currently, more and more telescopes were built and installed in Dome A of Antarctic. The telescopes are remote controlled, unattended operation due to Dome A’s environment. These telescopes must be work successfully at least one year without any failure. According to past experience, the power supply system is the weakest point in whole system. The telescopes have to stop if the power system have a problem, even a minor problem. So the high requirement for power supply system are presented. The requirement include high reliability, the self-diagnosis and perfect monitor system. Furthermore, the optic telescope only can work at night. The power source mainly relay on diesel engine. To protect the Antarctic environment and increase the life of engines. The power capacity is limited during observation. So it need the power supply system must be high power factor, high efficient. To meet these requirement, one power supply system was design and built for Antarctic telescope. The power supply system have the following features. First, we give priority to achieve high reliability. The reliability of power system was calculated and the redundant system is designed to make sure that the spare one can be work immediately when some parts have problems. Second, the perfect monitor system was designed to monitor the voltage, current, power and power factor for each power channel. The status of power supply system can be acquired by internet continuously. All the status will be logged in main computer for future analysis. Third, the PFC (Power Factor Correction) technology was used in power supply system. This technology can dramatically increase the power factor, especially in high power situation. The DC-DC inverter instead of AC-DC inverter was used for different voltage level to increase the efficient of power supply.